Church Of St George

TL 96 NE STOWLANGTOFT THE STREET

2/131 Church of St. George 15.11.54

GV I

Parish church, c.1370-1390 for, principally, Robert Dacey de Ashfield. Restored 1855-6 by William White. Nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. Flint and limestone rubble with freestone dressings. Flat roofs behind parapets and parapet gables. Much chequerboard flushwork: in a frieze at the base, on parapets and buttresses, and on the south face of the porch. On the parapets over the porch is arcading filled with flushwork. A fine series of grotesque gargoyles, and the base of a gable cross. Very tall and narrow 2- light window to nave and chancel, broad east window with complex tracery. Moulded porch doorway with shafts whose mouldings suggest reuse from an earlier C14 building. Inner doorway with original plank door and ironmongery. Interior: In the chancel is a shafted piscina and adjacent window seat sedilia. A further piscina in the south nave wall. Arch-braced tiebeam roofs: in the nave there are grotesque corbels beneath the wall-pieces of each truss, and the square-set purlins are archbraced with corbels to the tiebeams. Painted canopy of honour to the easternmost bay. Lower part of C15 rood screen remains, with original paintwork to the framing: the tracery includes carved figures. Roodloft staircase in north wall. Octagonal limestone font with figures beneath arches on each face of the bowl, and fluted stem. Fine C15 benches in the nave, incorporating clapboarded dado. Poppyhead bench-ends with tracery below, and upon the buttresses stand a wide variety of carved figures. Fine C15 choirstalls, with much high-quality carving including traceried panels and figures standing on the bench-ends. The misericord seats have complete figure carving beneath. Painting of St Christopher on north wall of nave. C15 stained glass in heads of nave windows at west end. Monument to Paul D'Ewes in chancel, by John Johnson of London, 1624: kneeling figure with two wives, son and seven daughters. Monument to Sir Willoughby D'Ewes (d.1685): an open pediment on twisted columns. Medieval slab in chancel floor with indents for brass figures and shields. Brass inscription on north chancel wall to Paul D'Ewes (1630). Several C16 and C18 floor slabs, some with coats of arms. The church is of outstanding interest as a closely-dated example of a single-phase late C14 building.

Listing NGR: TL9578268202